Competition at USC

People aren’t competitive here. Unlike some of my high school friends, college students have to take responsibility for their own learning. I was spurred to work harder in high school because people pushed me to do so. In college, there’s less of that kind of forcefulness.

Engineering students seem to be a lot more humble than my high school friends. They don’t speak out in class, trying to sound smart.

Why am I warming up to the idea of going to school? Now that I’m considering the very real possibility of leaving, I’m seeing more and more what I really like about being here. As long as I get enough sleep and keep active in class, I can really enjoy it while I know what’s going on.

If I feel like I’m learning, I have no fear of failure. It’s kind of like Lewis in Meet the Robinsons. Virtually all of his inventions explode or go wrong.

This happens often in computing. Security is a big issue. It’s hard to see some of these problems until they’re exploited or attacked. It’s hard to take off the programmer hat and get out of the box.

I wonder why Lewis didn’t just test by himself before revealing inventions to the world. Like Lewis, software engineers can’t do all their testing from their little box, in their own world.

Products need to be rolled out and tested by a larger audience. Release early and release often. Lewis subscribes to this policy.